Writer Mark Bomback Talks Working With Chris Evans On New Show Defending Jacob

What about the Defending Jacob story appealed to you and why did you want to turn it into a miniseries?

I'm not a fan of the term "elevated genre," but it's the easiest way to describe it. I love stories that are participating in a genre, in this case a thriller, a mystery, but have the potential to really be about the human experience. And Defending Jacob has something to say about what it means to be a parent, a child, a spouse. In fact, delving into that experience enhances the thrills of the mystery because you care that much more, and vice versa. So that was what appealed to me as a writer.

Plus, I have four children and being a dad is my central preoccupation, and what kind of a job I'm doing keeps me up at night, so I really connected to this dilemma. It's a very particular kind of nightmare. I've been very fortunate that I have pretty good kids, but we are ultimately, in a sense, at the mercy of our unconditional love for them. Between writing and shooting I've been with this show for almost three years now, so you have to really care about the subject matter. And I did.

How faithful is the series to the book?

I think that if you read the book you would say, "This feels like the book and has a lot of the moments I remember." But as a TV show, it has a different mandate. It's a different style of storytelling. The book is written in the first person, so it's really Andy's story from Andy's point of view. There aren't any scenes in the book that Andy isn't present for. So part of my job was to retell the story in a way that felt like more of a kaleidoscope of characters. I was able to invent a lot of depth for Laurie, and even re-approached Jacob's character. In the book Jacob was written as a darker character. And I think part of the author's reasoning is that you're coming at it from Andy's point of view, so he probably perceives him in a darker way. But I thought it would be more compelling if Jacob was more of a typical kid who has his dark moments and his upbeat moments, and is sometimes very reachable and other times very remote. It's a different experience. My one obligation when I'm adapting someone's work is to really be true to the spirit of what it is they wrote. And in this case, I feel like I've been quite true to the spirit of the book.

What was the hardest part of adapting the book into a teleplay?

This is the first time I've ever written eight hours of anything, so one of the biggest challenges was figuring out when an episode was over. The pacing was something I thought a lot about. And then there are some storylines that aren't in the book that I invented, which begged the question, how do I thread those in so that they feel organic and more like an enhancement than padding? I took a lot of pride in the author of the book watching the show and saying, "I wish I had thought of that subplot; that would've been cool in the book." So I felt good about it because I had his blessing.